Trump Threatens Licenses of 'Disgusting' News Networks

Moments later Trump retweeted another O'Reilly message, this time explicitly addressing his threat to revoke the "license" of what he perceives to be corrupt, politically motivated media outlets. "Network news has become so partisan, distorted, and fake that licenses must be challenged and, if appropriate, revoked", he tweeted. Specifically, Donald Trump seems to be targeting NBC and has threatened to revoke their license to broadcast here in the United States, because according to Donald Trump, they're doing nothing but putting out fake news and trying to demean and denigrate Trump himself and other members of his Cabinet. Trump commented on his retweet. After that meeting, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump "a moron", three officials in the room told NBC News. In confirmation hearings for Ajit Pai, we raised this possibility.

As he careens down a warpath, Trump, with his attack on National Football League player protests and the press, has so far only hit foundation blocks of our democracy- a free press and free speech, enshrined in the First Amendment. As the FCC notes on its website, the organization only provides licenses to individual stations; it does not license television or radio networks.

While the commissioners of the FCC are appointed by the President and approved by the Senate, the agency's relative independence is there by design to push back on situations where someone in the executive branch would attempt to dampen the free speech protections provided to licensed broadcasters.